Sharapova marches on, Stosur out

A rampaging Maria Sharapova doled out a second consecutive double-bagel win at the Australian Open, hammering Japan’s Misaki Doi 6-0 6-0 to storm into the third round of the year’s first Grand Slam in Melbourne.Second seed Sharapova opened her campaign on Monday with the same scoreline against fellow Russian Olga Puchkova and completed 92nd-ranked Doi’s humiliation in 47 minutes.Doi, raising ironic cheers from the crowd at Hisense Arena with every point she won late in the contest, surrendered the match by slamming a shot into the net to hand Sharapova a virtual walkover.Sharapova will next play Venus Williams or Alize Cornet in the third round as she bids for a fifth Slam and second at Melbourne Park.Australia’s Samantha Stosur blew a 5-2 lead in the final set to continue her dismal run in her home Slam, losing 6-4 1-6 7-5 to China’s Zheng Jie.Agnieszka Radwanska continued her 2013 unbeaten streak, extending it to 11 matches, with a comfortable 6-3 6-3 second round victory over Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu.The world number four, who won the Auckland and Sydney tournaments before the Grand Slam began and is yet to drop a set this year, will now meet Heather Watson in the third round after she beat Ksenia Pervak 4-6 7-6(7) 6-2, saving three match points in the process.Despite her hot form Radwanska, who won both the Auckland and Sydney titles before the year’s first Grand Slam, is not quite sure if she’s playing as well as she can.The Polish 23-year-old, who made her first Grand Slam final appearance last year when she lost to Serena Williams at Wimbledon, had entered the consciousness of the public at the Australian Open as one of the favourites of the underdogs.A player likely to advance comfortably through the early rounds, then just as likely lose to someone below here in the rankings from the quarter-finals onwards, as she was to beat the three women ranked above her.Champion Victoria Azarenka, world number two Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams, who twisted her ankle on Tuesday, all demolished their first round opponents with their powerful ground strokes and service game to the fore.Agencies

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Sharapova marches on, Stosur out